Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes bizX, the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.
As I did for much of last year, I will be tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.
This week, sixteen people were listed with new judgments totaling $180,476 to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers.
There were no listings in the Judgments Satisfied or Bankruptcy sections.
What I find interesting about this Tuesday's Number is the low dollar amounts being filed by one of the local hospitals. Of the sixteen judgments listed, 10 were from one hospital for under $5,000; six were for less than $3,000.
Is this a sign of a more aggressive policy towards collections, a refusal to write off small dollar debts? Is it indicative of the economic status of the patients served by this hospital, or of the hospital itself? Or just an anomaly?
I think it's an indication that the uninsured continue to use emergency rooms as personal physicians.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, Mary Anne. I agree that's a possibility; it will be interesting to see if the low numbers continue to show up on Tuesdays, and also if it becomes a trend for other facilities in the area. Stay tuned!
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